Port Macquarie Koala Hospital in NSW launched a fundraising page on October 31 – which as of Thursday had tremendously exceeded its $25,000 target, with over $1 million of donations recorded on its page.

Koala Conservation Australia president Sue Ashton said the GoFundMe account had been established to raise money for koala drinking stations, and extra funds will now go towards launching the country’s first wild koala breeding program through a second GoFundMe page.

“We’re closing the original GoFundMe site tomorrow because we’ve more than exceeded our target and we don’t want to be greedy,” Ashton told HuffPost Australia on Thursday.

Ashton explained the drinking stations were currently being built and will be offered to “all wildlife organisations in NSW”.

“So we’ll actually get them delivered and we’ll work with National Parks and Forestry to work out the best location for these drinking stations and get them put in to try and get water out to the wildlife that’s remaining,” she said.

“But now we’ve moved on to setting up a new site,” she said. “That’s to buy land to actually set up this breeding program so that’s what we’re doing now.

“We’re going to start that to try and rebuild the koala population because it’s been so devastated.”

“We are overwhelmed and humbled with gratitude for the support and care shown by people from all over the world for our efforts to care for koalas now and to try to ensure that we still have koalas for generations to come,” said the organisation.

“The initial target of $25,000 has well and truly been exceeded. Your generous donations have meant that we can now extend the original drinking stations project across a wider area of koala habitat in NSW. This program also benefits other wildlife affected in these areas.”